Of all of the worlds" non-western music, none seems to be as familiar and at the same time as alien as Indonesian gamelan. Gamelan utilizes it's own, highly intricate, notation system under the context of large group orchestration much like a lot of western music. This fact makes gamelan easily dissectible and imitable for western scholars and composers. It is also the main reason for such a high level of ethnomusicological study done in Indonesia. Be that as it may, it is the other worldly sound of gamelan that truly captured many a westerner's attention and imagination.
Gamelan's first appearance in the west is a debated subject, but it is agreed upon that individual instruments (as opposed to whole ensembles) were imported from the East Indies to Europe in the early 19th century. The very first gamelan outside of South-east Asia was brought to England by a man named Stamford Raffles. He had just finished his governorship of Java in 1816 and decided to bring a taste of the wonderful music he had heard home. He brought more than a taste. Raffles brought home two entire gamelan sets (just instruments) to Buckinghamshire, England. One was given to the Verney family to be put on display at the Clayden House, and the other was given to the British Museum's Department of Ethnology.
Even though the west now had the capability of making gamelan music, it was a long time before the west actually heard gamelan. The instruments brought over by Raffles were used more in sound experiments by acousticians and instrument inventors than to actually make music. In fact, it wasn't until the latter half of the 19th century that gamelan was actually heard outside of South-east Asia. .
The first documented case of a gamelan ensemble outside of South-east Asia that I could find was actually an ensemble comprised of Dutch civil servants as opposed to Indonesians. The date was 5/5/1857 and a group of civil servant trainees from Delft, on their way to the East Indies, performed a "garebeg" for family and friends during their procession on their way out of town.
